Anglican Church Backs Vic Abuse Report

The 9 News
November 13, 2013

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/2013/11/13/15/08/anglican-church-backs-vic-abuse-report

The Anglican Church has backed the recommendations of Victoria's child abuse inquiry and says it will fully co-operate with any changes to ensure children are adequately protected.

Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne Dr Philip Freier says the church supports the report's key recommendations.

"It is crucial that children be protected from abuse, and that we continue to strive to ensure that our protocols and processes meet the standards the community expects of us," he said in a statement.

Dr Freier said the Anglican Church would continue to provide full co-operation with the state government in implementing "whatever is necessary" to ensure children were adequately protected and abuse victims were treated with compassion, justice and equity.

He said the inquiry had been an important process.

"It is vitally important that victims have been given the opportunity to be heard in this public way, and that church processes and protocols have been rigorously scrutinised to investigate where improvements need to be made."

The parliamentary committee has called for sweeping legislative changes and widespread reforms of organisations that care for children.

The report says the internal responses to abuse used by the Catholic Church, the Anglican Church and the Salvation Army are not truly independent, provide only generic apologies and offer compensation without detailed explanation of why.

"The overwhelming message in both oral and written submissions to the inquiry was that most organisational responses do not adequately meet the needs of victims in achieving justice," it says.